Saturday, July 31, 2010

Over a hundred people attended the demonstration between 4pm to 8 pm on the 28th July at the US Embassy in London to save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal and demand his release While this lively demonstration took place in London, in Pennsylvania Mumia’s legal team were submitting papers to the Court of Appeals. Their findings will determine whether Mumia is granted a new trial on the issue of the death penalty.

Organisations that turned out for this important protest protest included the Global Afrikan Congress, the Partizan Defence Campaign, The Pan Afrikan Community Forum the George Jackson Socialist League, Coordination Committee of the Revolutionary Communists of Britain, as well as many who came as individuals.

There were solidarity messages from Ramona Afrika of the Move Organisation, from the Uhuru Organisation, the Poor Righteous Party of the Black Nation, the Grenada 17 Organisation, messages of support from the Free Mumia organisation in Germany and Democracy and Class Struggle from Wales and a solidarity message from the people of Haiti.

The speakers, chants and drums certainly made a noise with many passers by stopping to find out more and even join in the protest

This demonstration at the US Embassy followed a successful film show in Brixton on 20th July of In Prison my Whole Life attended by over a hundred people and builds momentum for the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Campaign in the United Kingdom

A new victory against the trials of fascism in Italy: the restrictive measures for the anti-fascists attacked by repression were taken away and the Public Prosecutor Boccia, one of the main agents of the political persecution, resigned.

On 21 July the Court of Review of Florence took away the restrictive measures (house arrests and confinement) from Alessandro della Malva, federal secretary of Tuscany of the CARC - Party, and from the other anti-fascist comrades attacked by the repressive campaign started on 11th October 2009 in Pistoia, orchestrated by Manzo, the head of the police administration of Pistoia, and directed in the Court by the Public Prosecutor Boccia. On 19th July Boccia resigned.

With this statement first of all the CARC Party intends to thank the exponents of the international communist and anti-imperialist movement who sent their solidarity with Italian comrades and their message of protest to the Court, and before all the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), whose statement we enclose here, the Marxist Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), the Socialist Party of the Oppressed in Turkey and its President, Figen Yüksekdağ, the comrades from Norway, New Zealand and all the others. Their solidarity and their protests are a formidable means for pressure on this occasion, as they were the other times they were done. Dear comrades, this victory against the trials of fascism in Italy is also yours. It is a victory for the international communist and anti-imperialist movement.

Why do we talk about trials of fascism in Italy? Because in Italy there is not fascism. There is not what also some Italian and foreign communist forces called “modern fascism”, particularly during the attacks by leaders of the government, by the police and by the organized criminal gangs against immigrants in Rosarno, on January in this year. In Italy there are forces trying to restore fascism, against which we can and must fight, against which we can win like we won today with the release of anti-fascists and the resignation of PM Boccia.

In the latest issue of Resistenza, the paper of the CARC Party, we write:

“Modern fascism or battle between revolutionary mobilization and reactionary mobilization? The crisis of overproduction of capital will not be resolved in the economic field, but through the upheaval and transformation of political relations in each country and in the system of international relations. Or eliminating capitalism or creating the conditions for destruction of companies, people, infrastructures, etc.. large enough to allow the resumption of capitalist accumulation: already today earthquakes, hurricanes and wars are a golden opportunity for the capitalists!

So it inevitably generates a political crisis: the society in its current form has no future and must inevitably change (revolutionary situation in development).

(...) Many sincere Communists and revolutionaries argue that today in Italy we are in a regime of modern fascism produced by the long dominance of Berlusconi gang with increasing restrictions of democratic rights, censorship and the monopoly of the media, the racist measures and the free hand to the fascist gangs, violations of the Constitution and the law. (...) Comrades, saying that we are in a modern fascism makes us leave the road! Do we forget what Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany were? If real fascism will prevail, the barbarity of the reactionary mobilization will go well beyond the crap Berlusconi’s gang has done and is doing! Mind you, the reactionary right is actually doing its trials of fascism, it is making thousand preparations of war on the international level, it is taking the road of reactionary mobilization, but the battle is still fully open. Talking of modern fascism means instead to take it for ended and lost rather than to gear up to fight, to mobilize all that could be mobilized to defeat the reactionary right and its trials of fascism and war, including the sincere democrats and even that part of the ruling class that is more reluctant to take the road of the reactionary mobilization because it fears that it could end badly: the lesson of the Resistance still smarts! “

In Italy there is no fascism but there are trials to restore it, and this is one aspect of the undeclared war of the bourgeoisie against the masses. To reject this trials is not only nor mainly resistance, but it is war of the popular masses against the imperialist bourgeoisie. The campaign against the trials of fascism in Italy is precisely an aspect of the Protracted Revolutionary People’s War (PRPW), that in Italy the (new) Italian Communist Party ((n)PCI) leads according to the particular laws and ways suitable for the concrete situation of our country, and that is the strategy for establishing socialism in Italy and so contributing to the proletarian revolution which is advancing all around the world.

The victories of the struggle against the trials of fascism are steps of the construction of the revolution in our country. They practically confirm the thesis of the (n)PCI on the universal validity of the law of the RPPW as strategy for seizing the power in every country, both in the imperialist and in the oppressed and neo-colonial countries, in a different way in each one of them through the political action and the military action, alternated or combined according to the particular laws, the particular needs and the concrete situation of every country.

To state the PRPW as the strategy for constructing the revolution and seizing the power is one of the greatest contributions of Marxism Leninism Maoism. The (n)PCI, stating its universal validity, contributes to develop Marxism Leninism Maoism as foundation of the new International Communist Movement and base for its victorious advancement and its new unity.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The assassination of Cherukuri Raj Kumar a.k.a Azad on July 1-2, 2010 killed a senior leader of the CPI (Maoist) and scuttled a peace process thus virtually destroying the hopes of millions of Indians who wanted the government offensive against the Maoists to be halted. In this sense it was a double killing.

We were encouraged by the news reports that the Union Home Minister had written to Swami Agnivesh on May 11, 2010 to explore the possibility of a 72 hour ceasefire to pave the way for talks between the Maoists and the Indian State and the letter sent by Cherukuri Rajkumar a.k.a Azad, on 31st May, 2010 reiterated that Maoist party was serious about talks. In particular, unlike in the past, party’s response was unambiguously positive. Azad wrote that “to ensure the establishment of peace there should be ceasefire or cessation of hostilities by both sides simultaneously instead of asking one side to abjure violence … lift the ban on the party and mass organizations so as to facilitate them to take up open forms of struggle …. initiate measures to release Party leaders as a prelude to the release of political prisoners …. and …. stop all its efforts to escalate the war including the measures of calling back all the para military forces deployed in the war zones.” Indeed even in his interview given to The Hindu (April 14,2010) he had stated in response to the question whether by engaging in talks the Maoists wanted “to buy time” or is it a “re-evaluation of political strategy” he had been candid. He had said that “it does not need much of a common sense to understand that both sides will utilize a situation of ceasefire to strengthen their respective sides.” But he pointed out that “talks will give some respite to the people who are oppressed and suppressed under the fascist jackboots of the Indian state and state-sponsored terrorist organizations…”. In the same interview he also reminded that it was the “imposition of the ban that had led the Party and the mass organizations to take up arms in the first place…….What shook the rulers at that time (in 1978) and compelled them to declare Jagtyala and Sircila taluks in Karimnagar district of North Telengana as disturbed areas in 1978 was not the armed struggle of the Maoists (which had suffered a complete setback …by 1972) but the powerful (movement against) anti-feudal order in the countryside….” In short the manner in which the party responded this time further inspired hopes in the possibility of ending the war.

Granted that hope generated about prospects of talk had weak foundation. No political party in government power has ever shown willingness to engage in sincere dialogue with the revolutionary left. This should caution us against raising our hope. The 2004-05 peace talks between the Maoists and the Andhra Pradesh government ended because fake encounters continued to be carried out by the AP police and so did Maoists retaliation. Thus even before substantive issues could be taken up talks got sabotaged and AP police crackdown ensued which dealt a severe setback to Maoists in AP. However, we also know that sooner or later both sides have to talk.

The assassination of Azad on July 1-2 has made the already difficult task bleak

The last Nizam king, Mir Usman Ali Khan was very notorious for the strengthening of Feudalism in the Hyderabad state. The feudal lords, nobles and other government officials, known as Razakars exploited the poor peasants and workers of their wealth, property, land and many times raped their ladies. Common people had no way other than depending on the landlords' mercy for basic needs like food, shelter and clothing. This situation made the people very angry. Many communist leaders of the region inspired by the Russian Revolution have decided to overthrow the Nizam's rule.

Sri Madapati Hanumantha Rao started Andhra MahaSabha. It was in 1928 that the Andhra Mahasabha was organised under the leadership of Sri Madapati Hanumantha Rao and others. Its first conference was held in Jogipeta in 1930 under the chairmanship of Suravaram Pratapa Reddy. In conferences, it used to pass resolutions demanding certain reforms in the administrative structure, for more schools, for certain concessions for the landed gentry, for certain civil liberties, but did not try to mobilise the people and launch struggles against the oppressors or against the Nizam's Government. But it became in those wretched and tremendously oppressive conditions in Hyderabad state, a forum, a focal point for the rising democratic aspirations of the people. (written by Sri Puchalapalli Sundaraiah in his book 'Telangana People's struggles and its lessons')

The Communist Party of India organised a peasant led armed rebellion against the cruel rule of Nizam landlords under the banner of Andhra Mahasabha. Few among the well-known individuals at the forefront of the movement were great leaders like Puchalapalli Sundaraiah, Chandra Rajeswara Rao, Raavi Narayana Reddy, the Urdu poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Hassan Nasir, Bhimreddy Narasimha Reddy, Mallu Venkata Narasimha Reddy , Mallu Swarajyam , Arutla Ramchandra Reddy and his wife Arutla Kamala bai.The rebellion is historically famous as the Telangana Rebellion and ended in October 1951.

The Comrades Association played an influential role in the guiding the Mahasabha.

Monday, July 26, 2010

On Friday 2nd July, in Istanbul, within the European Social Forum, it was held a seminar promoted and organized by the Anti-Imperialist Network of the Forum, on the issue of revolution in South Asia. Speakers were Indra Mohan Sigdel, ‘Basanta’, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (maoist), and Paolo Babini, representative of New Nepal Solidarity European Committees, and in charge of international relations for the CARC Party (Italy) that joins the New Nepal Solidarity European Committees.

On the occasion, comrade Basanta gave a very useful introduction to the knowledge of one of the most important aspects for the international communist movement and its new birth. We believe it deserves your most careful reading.

CARC Party – International Relations Department

Revolution in South Asia

Dear comrades and delegates,

Revolutionary greetings!

I would like to take this opportunity to extend our revolutionary salutation on behalf of our party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), to the organiser, the European Social Forum, who invited our party to attend this august programme in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition, I would like to extend our revolutionary greetings to the entire delegates participating in this seminar. I feel honoured to be here with all the delegates from around the world. But, more than that I would like to utilise this opportunity to share experiences that the working class all across the world has gathered through their valiant struggles against imperialism and its anti-people and neo-colonial policies like privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation, and as well the ruling classes subservient to it.

Dear comrades,

Our party has assigned me to speak here on the revolution in South Asia as requested by the organisers. It is a vast course, a very difficult task to cover in a few minutes. However, I will try my best to be brief but certainly I will focus on the key points to help you reach to the basic understanding of the possibilities and challenges, the revolution in South Asia is confronting now.

South Asia consists of seven countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. More than one-fifth of the world's population inhabit in this region. It is the most populous and densely populated geographical region in the world. Agriculture, which contributes to only 22% of the total GDP of the region, employs 60% of the labour force. Next to Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia is the poorest region on the earth. As per the information provided by the World Bank, in 2008, more than 40% of the people dwelling in this region earn less than 1.39 dollars per head per day. On the other, the total wealth of the 25 richest Indian capitalists is equivalent to 192.3 billions of dollars. [Source: www.forbes.com]. It is equal to the total yearly earnings of more than 379 millions of the lowest poor people from this region, which is about 31.6% of the total population of India alone. Around 2.1 million of children die of malnutrition every year in this region as per the report published by UNICEF in 2008. This gives a short glimpse of class composition in the South Asian countries.

Apart from sharp class contradictions in South Asian countries, there exist serious national contradictions all across the region. Everyone is aware of the severity of national contradiction in Sri Lanka. The entire North-East and Kashmir of India have been the hotbeds of the national liberation movements since 'independence'. Besides this, various oppressed nationalities in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been struggling for their autonomy and right of self-determination. Social discriminations based on Hindu caste chauvinism are beyond belief in India and Nepal. In all of the South Asian countries, the political system, which is erected upon the base of feudalism but safeguarded by the superstructure of comprador and bureaucratic capitalism, has been the root cause to intensify the aforesaid contradictions; let alone their resolution.

The masses dwelling in this region are simultaneously down weighed by two-fold enemies, feudalism and imperialism. In addition, the Indian expansionism on the one hand has been acting as a watchdog of the US imperialism in South Asia and on the other it has also been imposing its own political, economical and cultural hegemony upon the neighbouring countries. In the recent days, the Indian ruling classes are increasingly surrendering to US imperialism in the latter's design to bring the entire region under its strategic grid to encircle and weaken China, which is a strong economic contender of the 21st century.

In an interview with a Hsinhua News Agency correspondent, in September 29, 1958, Mao had said, "The various types of contradictions in the contemporary world are concentrated in the vast areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America; these are the most vulnerable areas under imperialist rule and the storm centres of world revolution dealing direct blows at imperialism". This assertion of Mao still holds good. But, in the present situation, South Asia has emerged as a vulnerable area of imperialist rule and a living volcano of the New Democratic Revolution under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties. In addition to semi-feudal exploitation and semi-colonial oppression, a broad section of the masses in this region have been victimised of internal national subjugation. The caste oppression upon Dalits, plundering of Adivasis and unbearable exploitation and repression upon religious minorities has been the real identity of Hindu chauvinist ruling classes, principally in India. A huge number of the working class people are thrown into destitution, which is ever escalating. In short, the sharp contradiction made up of feudalism plus imperialism versus the broad masses, extensive presence of the revolutionary, national liberation and democratic movements all across South Asian countries and a huge number of exploited and oppressed masses living in this region have heightened this revolutionary potential further.

This region carries a long history of revolutionary class struggles. However, the first flame of the revolutionary class struggle in this region had ignited in 1967 from Naxalbari in Siliguri district, West Bengal, under the ideological guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao-Tsetung thought. It not only spread its influence to the extensive countryside of India but also became a harbinger for the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Since then, the revolutionary class struggles have been, one after the other, going on with ups and downs, and twists and turns. However, the Maoist revolution has made a major forward leap mainly after the initiation of the great people's war in Nepal in February 13, 1996 and the merger of two major revolutionary streams, the People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre, to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), in September 2004. In fact, these two political events have turned this region into a living volcano of the proletarian revolution in the beginning of the 21st century.

Subsequent to the aforesaid major political events on the part of revolutionaries, the Nepalese people's revolution has now reached to the threshold of seizing central political power. The last May Day demonstration, in which half a million people poured into the streets of Kathmandu valley alone, and the indefinite political strike that followed has not only stroke at the heart of a handful of the comprador and bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the feudal elements in Nepal but also inflicted a forceful bow to their foreign masters as well. In order to protect their pawns from losing their power, the external forces, mainly the Indian expansionism, has now come in open to meddle in the internal affairs of Nepal. An alliance made up of Indian expansionism and its Nepalese puppets have stood against Nepalese people's aspiration of democracy and national independence. Now, the democracy and national independence are inseparably interconnected in Nepal. It has placed the struggle for national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity at the first place.

New Democratic Revolution in India is making newer strides. It has engrossed a vast area in the eastern and the central part of India. The military offences carried out by the CPI (Maoist) fighters, particularly for the last few years, and militant mass struggles led by the Maoists and other left forces against the seizure of peasant's land in Nandigram and Singur to provide for big multinational companies have led to sleepless nights for the Indian reactionary ruling classes. Massive people's resistance in Lalgarh, West Bengal, against police atrocity remained a model never seen in the history of the Communist Movement of India. The development of people's war in India is of course a matter of pride and source of inspiration for the revolutionaries not only in the South Asian sub-continent but also the entire working class people all over the world.

Indian ruling classes, instead of addressing the problems the country and people are confronting have deployed a huge number of paramilitary forces against the poorest of the poor Indian people, the Adivasis. The anti-people act of "Operation Green Hunt" that the Indian expansionist ruling classes have initiated is based upon the reactionary design to attack and destroy the new revolutionary political power emerging through the people's war. It is, in fact, aimed at clearing the way to rampant attacks on the people and plunder of natural resources by the comprador big bourgeoisie, national and international. But, in the contrary, it has created a ground for wider rallying of a broad section of the left, progressive, democrats and entire pro-people forces against the anti-people ruling classes of India. A good number of renowned intellectuals like Ms Arundhati Roy have come forward to stand by the poor Adivasis, oppose the paramilitary deployment in the Adivasi areas and expose the bankruptcy of the so-called biggest democracy of the world. People's war in India has now become a central agenda of discussion, also among the middle class people. Even the big media houses run by comprador big bourgeoisie cannot keep silent over the Maoist activities in these days. It is a big ideological and political achievement for the revolutionaries in India and abroad.

Although there is a long history of armed struggle in Bangladesh, right at the moment, the communist revolutionaries have not been able to make a leap forward. Some Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties have had some temporary setbacks with the capture of their senior leaders by the reactionary regime and some others are regrouping and preparing to develop people's war. In spite of this, sharp class contradiction, national oppression, and revolutionary legacy of the past and as well the patriotic sentiment of the Bangladeshi people make this country a highly potential one for the development of new democratic revolution in Bangladesh.

Along with this, formation of the Communist Party of Bhutan (MLM) in 2001 and a long existence of the Maoist Communist Party in Sri Lanka and their effort to reorganise it have had an additional potential for the communist movement in South Asia. Although any Maoist party doest not exist in Pakistan right at the moment but the ideological struggle that some of the revolutionaries have been waging to build up a revolutionary party can have a positive implication in the near future. In this way, the entire South Asia except the Maldives, where no communist party is heard about yet, is a strong potential base for the world communist movement. In other words, South Asia is a living volcano of proletarian revolution in the beginning of the 21st century.

However, it is a fact that the more the development of proletarian revolution the more formidable is the challenge for the reactionaries. Indian expansionism, backed by the US imperialism, has been standing as a common enemy since long not only against the Indian masses but those of the entire region as well. In order to contain the new democratic revolutions in this region the reactionaries the world over have rallied together against the people more strongly than before. As a result, the South Asia is becoming a front of collision between two fronts: one formed of the proletariat and their class allies national and international and other alliance formed of the imperialists and their lackeys from the individual countries. A new world in South Asia is now gestating in the womb of this contradiction.

In the present era of imperialism, the proletarian revolution does not remain a phenomenon merely of a single country. It is affected by many interconnected factors. The victory of any communist revolution is linked with the objective condition of the world and subjective strength of the international proletariat. Lets us have a short look on these two factors in the world level.

Objectively, the world situation is not as unfavourable for revolution as it was during 80s and 90s. Rather it is becoming favourable for the proletariat to make revolutions. It is not that a revolutionary crisis has already emerged all across the world, but it is an objective reality that the imperialist system has fallen in more acute problems than it had before. The economic crisis that had emerged from US, the imperialist ringleader, has now engulfed the whole world although in varying dimensions. In spite of the European Union's effort to resolve the economic crisis in Greece, their every attempt has turned futile, leading to further crisis. It is just an example.

Though no rival to the US imperialism has emerged yet in terms of military strength but its contradiction with other military and economic super powers is on the rise in the world. Once a uni-polar world has now changed into a multi-polar one. The contradiction between capital and labour is intensifying all across the world. And also the contradiction between imperialism and the entire oppressed nations and the people, which is the principal contradiction in the world at present, is also sharpening. With the intensification of all the basic contradictions, including the principal one, the objective situation is becoming more favourable to the proletariat, than to the imperialist, to advance revolutionary class struggles all across the world.

In the contrary, the international communist movement is very weak in terms of its subjective strength. However, this too is developing positively. The advance made by revolutionary class struggles in various countries, mainly in the South Asia, is an undeniable example. Apart from this, people's anger that spilled into the streets against privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation for the last few years shows the potentiality of revolution all across the world. What does the proletariat seriously lack at present is to correctly grasp the universality of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, its resolve to fight right revisionism, the main danger in the contemporary communist movement, and build up communist parties based on this ideology and thereby apply it creatively in agreement with the particularity of the given country. This is the ideological and political challenge that the proletariat needs to consciously confront today and emerge victorious in it to fill the gap that exists between the favourably developing objective world situation and still very weak subjective strength.

We, the proletariat, are an internationalist class. We the revolutionaries in South Asia and the comrades from other part of the world have reciprocal duties to develop proletarian revolution all across the world. The development of people's revolution in South Asia has been instrumental to equip you with valuable revolutionary assets that ideologically inspire you to advance the communist movement in your respective countries and your firm support to and solidarity with us will be instrumental to make the revolution in South Asia victorious. This seminar, in fact, has helped accelerate this process. Let all of us unequivocally thank the organiser to make it happen.

Comrades,

The New Democratic Revolution in Nepal is at such a formidable crossroads where the revolutionaries and the entire patriotic, republican, progressive, secular and left forces on the one hand and imperialism, expansionism and their domestic puppets on the other are fighting at close to emerge victorious in the ongoing political tussle. In the same manner, the revolution in India also is facing a grave challenge now. The reactionary Indian state has already deployed paramilitary forces against its own people in the pretext of fighting Maoists and is preparing to reinforce them with its strong military force further. This is leading to a fierce fighting between revolutionary and counterrevolutionary forces in India.

The victory of revolution in South Asia will have a far-reaching implication and become a harbinger to spread the flames of revolution all across the world. On the other, its defeat will result in a complete demoralisation of the people not only of this region but those all across the globe. In this situation, a strong solidarity to the revolution in South Asia is the need of the day. Let all of us strive hard to build up a strong solidarity to help make our class victorious from South Asia and open the door of the world proletarian revolution in the beginning of the 21st century. Thank you.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

It has been six months since a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti in January. The city of Port-au-Prince is still literally buried in rubble, making transportation difficult and rebuilding nearly impossible. There is little recovery and rebuilding. Why?

First of all, this reflects the fact that Haiti is an impoverished country that has been economically and politically stunted because it has been dominated by imperialism, especially U.S. imperialism. Experts estimate that it would take 1,000 trucks three years to remove all the rubble. So far only 2 percent has been cleared. But the media reports that Haiti only has 300 trucks [working on clean-up].

And then there are the rules of capitalism – in which nothing gets done unless there is a profit to be made. So millions of trucks and other heavy equipment in the U.S. , including tens of thousands of pick-ups and SUVs sitting unsold on car lots because of the depressed economy, are not used to help hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti who are suffering.

There are the huge roadblocks thrown up by capitalist relations of ownership and production in Haiti itself. There have been frequent reports in the media that plans to build better camps are stymied by the failure to get permission from large landowners who control possible sites. In fact, there are many reports of people being evicted from encampments set up after the earthquake because landlords thought they could put even rubble strewn land to more profitable use.

The following is from The New York Times: “[D]ebris… also has a potential monetary value if it is to be reused. ‘It’s not just the rubble, it’s the question of rubble ownership,’ Mr Scales [of the International Organization for Migration] said. Most [people on the land to be cleared] are renters, but the rubble technically belongs to the property owners. And sorting out who owns what land, and getting their permission to excavate has proved difficult.”

Think about what is being said here: “It’s not just the rubble, it’s the question of rubble ownership.” What is happening here speaks volumes to the utter insanity and brutality of the rules operating in the capitalist system – and the complete inability of this system to even address, much less meet, the basic needs of the people. Some 1.6 million people must live in the streets during hurricane season while the propertied classes determine who should gather profits from the ruins of their former homes!

Only 28,000 people have been placed in permanent or stable temporary shelter. Most people have not even received tents. By official figures, only 97,000 tents have been put up since the earthquake – one for every 16 homeless people – and most of these are now falling apart. Tens of thousands of people do not even have tarps. Most of those who lost their homes still remain in the roughly 1,200 camps around the earthquake zone. Only one fourth of these camps are even being run by organized agencies – which are more likely to provide latrines, lights and perhaps clean water. The rest are pulled together by the masses of people, usually led by a committee of residents, fending for themselves to get food, water and sanitation. Said Menmen Vilase, a nine-months pregnant woman: “I’d love to live under a plastic sheet, but I can’t afford it.”

The NYT (10 July 2010) described one of these camps built single file along the median strip of a busy highway. Dozens have been injured when cars crashed into their shanties. Latrines were finally built in March by the French group, Islamic Aid, but they are across the road, so many people who are sick with diarrhoea have to dart through traffic to get to bathrooms. A Revolution reporter visited this same shantytown in January – in all this time these latrines are the only substantial aid they have received.

Faced with all this, tens of thousands of people have moved back into homes badly damaged and unsafe, living daily with the terror of being buried alive if the unstable structures collapse, if another earthquake hits. Others have moved into cemeteries, a municipal dump, flooded sports fields. People live amidst rubble still containing human remains; one man said, “It is better to be here with the smell of the dead bodies than to be down at that camp where it stinks of pee.”

The NYT reported that UN officials “urge patience… They point to accomplishments in providing emergency food, water and shelter and averting starvation, exodus and violence.” Nigel Fisher, deputy special representative of the United Nations secretary general in Haiti told the Times that “What hasn’t happened is worth noting. We haven’t had a major outbreak of disease. We haven’t had a major breakdown in security.” (7/10/10)

Now, when people like this talk about “violence” and “breakdowns in security,” they are not talking about the security of the masses. They are not talking about the increasing levels of rape of women in the camps or the stealing and selling of children into the international sex trade, or attacks on “squatters” by machete-wielding thugs of large land-owners – all of which has been happening.

What they mean is that there has not, so far, been a major political uprising of the Haitian people against the U.S./UN occupation or against the failure of the imperialists and the subservient Haitian government to meet the most basic needs of the people. When they speak of “avoiding exodus”, they are bragging that they have prevented large numbers of Haitians from escaping the desperate conditions there and coming to the United States . To the U.S. and other imperialists (including the UN) millions living on the edge of death is quite fine as long as people are kept from the point of either rising up or flooding into the U.S. where they might be a source of social instability.

What about all those billions of dollars of aid pledged to Haiti ?

There are three realities to look at here. The first reality is that when you read the fine print, the aid pledged to Haiti came with “conditions” , which were basically that Haiti officially give up its national sovereignty.

The “justification” for this outrageous imposition of foreign control is the history and present reality of widespread corruption and “incompetence” of the Haitian government. There is a racist and colonialist sub-text here – the imperialists imply that Haitian people are just too ignorant to handle their own affairs, so it is up to the great powers to “pick up the white man’s burden” (as the pro-imperialist British writer Rudyard Kipling once called it) of running their society for them. This “native” corruption and incompetence is a prime justification for imperialist intervention of all kinds, and a prime way of covering up the enormous failures of their system.

Now it has to be said that in the wake of Katrina, the Wall Street debacle, the housing collapse, and the capitalist oil catastrophe in the Gulf, the U.S. should shut up about other nations’ incompetence and corruption!

But more importantly, governmental corruption in Haiti (and elsewhere) is very real, but it is directly a product of U.S. domination.

To put it bluntly, the U.S. has been the primary force shaping – often violently – the Haitian state and social and economic structure. And very specifically, the U.S. worked to overthrow any regime that was not thoroughly “corrupt”. Why? Because the people the U.S. wants as local power structure in Haiti are those willing to sell out the interests of the people and nation of Haiti to the U.S., in return for prestigious titles, connections and a fat salary.

Yet even so, Haiti now confronts a second reality – that the vast majority of aid that was promised hasn’t come through.

The third reality here is that the U.S. plan for Haiti – should it ever actually materialize – is to rebuild it to better serve the needs of U.S. imperialism, and not to help the Haitian people.

According to Ansel Herz writing on HaitiAnalysis. com, “[Hilary] Clinton, along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, are touting a plan devised by Oxford economist Paul Collier to expand tariff-free export zones around Haiti. Their plan calls for Haiti to lift urban slum-dwellers out of poverty through jobs in textile factories, like the Inter-American Garment Factory…”

In July demonstrations of thousands took to the streets in Port-au-Prince and other Haitian cities. While there were many diverse forces and demands, the unifying theme was to demand the resignation of the government of President Rene Preval. Annessy Vixama, a leader of Tet Kole, one of the major peasant organizations in Haiti , has raised the just demand that “the state has to change from attending to international businesses that are acting against the majority of the people and start attending to the peasants.”

The state, in Haiti or anywhere else, is never “neutral”; it does not represent “the people” or “the nation” in general – it arises on the basis of, reflects and serves the underlying economic and political system in a given country. In Haiti the basic system is exploitation and domination by the imperialists (mainly the U.S. ) and by the imperialists’ allies within Haiti amongst the large landowning and capitalist classes. This is the system, these are the class forces, that the state was built to serve and which it can only serve. And in fact, if the Haitian state is weak, that is mainly because the imperialists have repeatedly opted to rule directly, through coups, invasions and occupations; in fact, Haiti has been under U.S./UN occupation since President Aristide was kidnapped and taken out of the country in 2004, and most aid and investment bypasses the government and is funnelled through NGOs (generally pro-imperialist “non-governmental organizations” ).

The mounting struggle against this government and demands that it meet the needs of the people are completely just and should be supported by people everywhere. And such struggle has the potential to strengthen and push forward a movement for revolution that is aimed at the fundamental problem of U.S. imperialism and its stranglehold domination of Haiti .

Friday, July 16, 2010

Nepali Maoists have come out in support of their Indian comrades and declared their opposition to the security operations against them. Speaking over telephone, Nepali Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, told Hindustan Times:

“This is the first time we are publicly saying that we oppose state repression the so-called Operation Greenhunt in India. The problems of the day can be solved only through dialogue and negotiations, not through the use of force.”

Indian Maoists are ideologically the same as their Nepali counterparts, he said, adding: “Politically we are the same, although we have differences on certain issues.”

Admitting that the Nepali Maoists had a “relationship” with the CPI(Maoist) when the former was underground, he said the ties ended when his party decided to come out “in the open and contest elections”.

Prachanda denied that the 11-member Nepali Maoist team that left for China on Thursday had any deeper implication. “This is not a political visit. It is a visit to study ‘historical and cultural’ ties between Nepal and China. We desire good relations with both India and China.”

But the timing of Prachanda’s statement has raised eyebrows. “His declaration of support is related to internal political developments in Nepal,” former RAW official B. Raman said

Indian authorities need to look into the death of journalist Hemchandra Pandey who was killed early this month in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh, a top U.N. official said.“I am concerned about the circumstances in which Hem Chandra Pandey was killed and I urge the authorities to shed full light on the conditions under which it occurred,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Pandey, 30, who worked for several Hindi-language newspapers, was killed along with Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad on July 2.

UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom.

Pandey’s wife Babita told journalists on July 4 that her husband had left for Nagpur on June 30 on assignment and been unavailable on his mobile phone since then.

Shortly after the incident was reported, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) expressed shock and also called for an inquiry.

“Hem Chandra Pandey, like any journalist, was well within his rights in seeking to interview an insurgent leader, especially in the context of ongoing peace moves,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said last week.

“The IFJ extends its solidarity to Babita Pandey and the family of the killed journalist, and welcomes the Andhra Pradesh Home Minister’s announcement of a full inquiry,” she added.

Ms. Babita has stated that the incident was a fake encounter and has asked for a probe by the Central government because she does not trust the State authorities to be honest.

Human rights groups in India and civil liberty activists have called for a Central investigation.

Noting that Pandey was a contributor to leading Hindi-language dailies such asNai Duniya, Rashtriya Sahara and Dainik Jagaran, IFG said, “a portfolio of his recent writings shows a well-informed engagement with issues of wide social concern, such as inflation, food security and climate change. Nowhere does it reveal an advocacy of violence.”

William Francome star of a documentary film about the case, ‘In Prison my Whole Life’, will be introducing a screening of this movie in Brixton. William Francome and the organisers of Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Defence Campaign UK will be available to answer questions about the film and the campaign.

Please network this as widely as you can. Please invite any friends who may be interested to visit www.niyamgiri.net where, with a few clicks of the mouse, they can send emails to Indian decision makers and the financiers bankrolling this destruction.

I write you for expressing the deep indignation I feel as regard the modern political confinement and the conditions of half-house arrests to which the Tuscan Anti-fascists under inquiry in the proceedings framed upon 11th October at Pistoia by head of police administration Manzo, by the DIGOS and by the Public Prosecutor Boccia, with the aid of the “Third Millennium Fascists” of Casa Pound are subjected.

These restrictive measures, as the whole proceedings, are not legal, are anti-democratic and undermine the roots of the principles founding Italian Constitution, fruit of the Partisan resistance. On 1st April, the Court of Cassation itself declared groundless the charge of “devastation and plunder”, upon which the whole proceeding is based and by which they try to justify the heavy restrictive measures carried out for nearly a year by now against the Anti-Fascists under inquiry. That is why I wish that on 21st July you will side against the one who wants to throw what is left of political rights and freedom in Italy in the waste paper basket. As a matter of fact, this is the main issue in the ongoing proceedings and so it will be also in the hearing that will be held on 21st July at the Court of Review of Florence.

News has arrived that Cherukuri Rajkumar, popularly known as “Comrade Azad”, Central Committee member, Political Bureau member and Party Spokesman of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) had been arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Special Police Forces along with Hem Pandey (Jittender) and brutally murdered in the forests of Adilabad on the border Maharastra. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has stated that both Azad and Hem Pandey have been murdered extrajudicially and that their deaths were portrayed as if there was a military encounter between the military and the revolutionaries. This method of “fake encounters” is a popular method among the State forces of India who employ such dirty tactics especially in regions were Maoists are powerful. Contradictory to the announcements of the Indian State, both Comrades, Azad and Hem Pandey were murdered while unarmed.

Azad and Hem Pandey, whom we regard as leaders of the Indian people’s struggle against poverty, starvation, exploitation and imperialist domination, have been murdered in a despicable manner. This has only sharpened our hatred of the Indian State. The Indian State’s recent violent, oppressive attacks on all revolutionary forces, including the Maoists further deepens the grudge we hold against India. Today the peasantry of India who strive to live off the land, and especially the Adivasi people, and the Maoists who lead the exploited millions in their struggle for freedom are targeted by the brutal and savage “Operation Green Hunt.” Through the course of this operation the Indian State has murdered countless people, including members of the vanguard of the people of India. Thus the State of India has shown the world its true face. The recent murder of Azad and Jitender displays the immutable political line pursued by reactionary states such as India, against the people and their political vanguard.

We turn our attention to the working class and oppressed millions of India. We turn our attention to their confident march towards a better future. The Indian People’s struggle for New Democracy, lead by the Maoist Communists gives inspiration to all oppressed peoples of the world. It also frightens the imperialist-capitalist reactionaries all over the world. From thousands of kilometers away, we salute the Indian People’s struggle for revolution with our sincerest internationalist feelings. We also firmly state that we embrace their perspective of struggling for People’s Democracy. With the same determination, we condemn the reactionary State of India. We embrace the values created by the People of India in their struggle for the golden age of mankind as if those values were our own. We also see all their martyrs as if those martyrs were our own.

We send this letter of condolence by the working people’s of our own country to the Indian People who have lost two of their comrades. Comrades Azad and Jittender are immovable barricades in the universal revolutionary battle against the reactionaries, and their memory will live on forever. The oppressed millions of India, lead by the Maoists, are struggling against this system of exploitation and oppression. The brutal, genocidal attacks by the State of India against these millions in struggle will inevitably fail. We are fully confident that the Revolution in India will succeed. We once again declare that we will not stay silent in the face of brutal attacks by Indian Expansionism against the Indian and Nepali People’s struggles for independence, democracy, socialism and communism.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

This is a rejoinder that the slain CPI (Maoist) spokesperson had penned in response to B.G. Verghese's article in Outlook.

Reading B.G. Verghese's article Daylight at the Thousand-Star Hotel in Outlook (May 3), one is stunned by the abysmal poverty of thought and colonial mindset of this renowned intellectual. How is it that the illiterate, seemingly uncivilised, backward, half-naked adivasi thinks, analyses and acts a lot better than an established, well-read, highly qualified intellectual like Verghese?

The history of freedom in our country presents innumerable such contrasts: of the highly educated white man, with his vast, in-depth knowledge of the world and the natural and social sciences, glorifying the British raj as a regime with a civilising mission; and the half-naked, illiterate Indian who craved for freedom and independence. To justify the oppression of their subjects in the colonies, the "educated" colonial intellectuals invented phrases such as "white man's burden", "civilising mission" et al. The freedom fighter, however, was not impressed by the 'development' the British colonialists brought to India through their railways, roads, communication networks, plantations, mines etc.

Verghese is a typical example of the self-proclaimed civilisers of modern-day India, akin to the white 'civilisers' of yesteryear, who would have been the pride of a Rudyard Kipling. He reveals this colonial mindset by vehemently arguing in favour of the civilising mission of the corporate sharks and the Indian State to transform the poor, backward adivasis from savages into civilised people through a 'development' that destroys people's economy, social life, culture and all human values. Ironically, ignoramuses like him imagine that adivasis are the casualties of non-development.

The corporate vultures and their police servants have said, through Verghese, what they think of a dialogue with the Maoists. Citing from my interview in The Hindu, Verghese gives his own interpretation to my proposal for talks. He derides my statement that "talks will give some respite to the people who are oppressed and suppressed under the jackboots of the Indian State. . ." and interprets this as "respite for the oppressed (cadres)". Such is the wishful imagination, cynicism, trivialisation and vulgarisation of a life-and-death question confronting millions of hapless people